May 11, 2025

Easter 4, Year C

Acts 9:36-43; John 10:22-30; Revelation 7:9-17

Epiphany, Winnipeg

In this story we just heard Jesus is in the temple in Jerusalem, walking around in a courtyard in the oldest part of the temple, that temple that was the centre of Jewish religious life. Over the course of almost a millenium before Jesus came along, that temple had been built and destroyed and rebuilt, and it’s come to represent the long long long history of Jesus’ own people who have lived through homelessness and slavery and war, and also faithfulness and flourishing. As Jesus walks through the temple the nation is living under one of those down times, under the power of the Roman Empire. Just another chapter in the life of Jesus’ own people, who have been through so much that might break them apart, but who still keep living and seeking to be one.

So Jesus is walking in the temple and some religious leaders approach Jesus with a question. They want a a straight answer about who he is: “Are you the Messiah?” But just like Jesus so often does, he doesn’t give them a straight answer. Instead he talks about the works he has done, and he talks about his sheep hearing his voice, like he’s some kind of shepherd.Then he says that no one will ever snatch those sheep out of his hand. Jesus gathers sheep and keeps them together.

That’s what Jesus does: gathers people together. He calls them disciples, he calls them children, sometimes he calls them sheep, and the one thing he’s adamant about is that he won’t lose them and he’ll gather them all up and make them one people. In a world divided by powers and empires and incomes and all the ways people might be driven apart, Jesus gathers a flock and draws them together as one, just like he and the God he calls Father are one.

Those first members of Jesus’ flock were, like him, Jews from what we now call Israel and Palestine. There were just a few of them. A few years later, after all the tragic and triumphant news about his death and resurrection, that flock is growing. By the time we get to that reading from Acts that we just heard, where one of Jesus’ flock named Peter raises another member of his flock, a woman named Tabitha, the flock has grown. It includes so many different people than anyone might have imagined.

There are men who are disciples, there are women like Tabitha, who we heard about in our first reading today, who are disciples. A eunuch from Ethiopia has been baptized and they’re a disciple too. Someone who used to be named Saul and used to have a career hauling Jesus’ sheep off to prison has become one of those sheep himself, a disciple, and the people he used to think were his enemies have become his own beloved friends. Pretty soon a Jewish disciple named Peter will be eating with an Italian disciple named Cornelius – a Jew and a Gentile, the colonized and the colonizer, will eat together, and be sheep in the same flock. All these people are being gathered together, and they come together like one big flock with one shepherd; one flock who aren’t divided any more.

The flock just kept growing and including more. Decades after Jesus first starting talking about all these sheep, a sheep named John had a vision about that flock – we heard about it in that reading from Revelation. John is under house arrest and feeling the full power of the Roman Empire coming down on him, and he has this dream about a flock that has grown and has survived through so much. The dream looks and sounds sort of like this:

“Then I saw a huge crowd of people, more than anyone could count; they were from every nation and every tribe and language under the sun, and no persecution or dividing or dying could keep them down, and these sheep – we’ll call them saints – gathered around a Lamb on a throne and they sang. And that Lamb (remember when someone called Jesus the Lamb of God?) will be their shepherd (remember when Jesus called himself their shepherd?), and all those sheep will live, and every tear will be wiped from their eyes.”

Do you see what’s happening? It’s an old story about sheep that won’t be scattered, and who will keep on being one even when that seems impossible. It’s a story Jesus knew well, because he was a part of that story of the Jewish people. It’s an old story that Jesus makes new when he calls himself a shepherd who will gather the flock, and keep it one, and the flock won’t be snatched away and tears will be wiped away and one day, one day, God, the shepherd, will make everything new.

It's a story of a flock that keeps growing to include all kinds of people and it’s always all about the shepherd gathering sheep, making them one, and not letting them be snatched away. Making them one. Wiping their tears away.

It’s happening now, of course. Fifty or sixty sheep are gathered at the curve in the road on Dalhousie Drive. Jesus says, “These sheep, they hear my voice, and no one will ever snatch them out of my hand.” That’s us too. We’re part of this flock of Jesus who will never be snatched out of his hand. Because Jesus the shepherd is all about gathering up a flock. From everywhere. Always.

Back up again, and let’s remember one of those sheep: a disciple named Tabitha. We heard about her in the first reading today. She’s called a disciple, just like all those guys we get used to calling disciples, with names like Peter and James and John and Andrew and Bartholomew. She’s a strong part of her community; she is known for her kindness and for her generosity. Her gifts are just part of the fabric of life where she lives: She makes clothes for women who can’t afford them, she helps to provide for those who have little or nothing. In her own way she sees to it that no one is left to fend for themselves, and nobody is left without the things they need to make it through life from day to day.

When Tabitha falls sick and dies, part of the fabric of that community dies. So her friends call for Peter to come right away, because there’s been some word that he’s prayed for people who are ill and they’ve become well. Tabitha isn’t sick, though. She’s dead. But Peter comes anyway. He prays, then tells Tabitha to get up, and she does. The disciple named Tabitha comes back to life. Her generosity comes back to life. Her care for the people around her comes back to life; her care for those who might otherwise be uncared for comes back to life, a thread in the community that helps hold it together with generosity and kindness comes back to life.

It's not just that Tabitha is alive again. In a world that lives in fear under the Roman Empire, and in a society that can be as divided between strong and weak and rich and poor as, well, even ours can be, the way of generosity and grace and communities that care for each other comes back to life. And that way is stronger than death.

That matters for us today. When Jesus starts to gather together a flock, he’s not starting up some kind of group that will make its way in the world by tightening up their borders and saying who is welcome in the flock and who is not. And he’s not pulling together some kind of organization that will be all about keeping its own resources and whose members will be devoted to looking after their own well-being. He’s calling together a community of sheep who are also called disciples who are learning the ways of Jesus. He’s building a community of people who are called to be like Tabitha – why isn’t there a St. Tabitha Lutheran Church somewhere? Committed to generosity and to caring for one another and for the people around us.

The crucified and risen Jesus calls together a community, like us, who are gathered around the good news that life will win, and that generosity and care will always rise up when death or hate or fear seem to be having the final say.

Jesus is a shepherd, drawing together a flock. A flock that includes even those we might not expect. Jesus draws together enemies and calls them sheep, calls them disciples, calls them one and makes them friends. He calls in those who seem wanted and especially those who seemunwanted and says “You belong here. This flock is for us all.”

In a world divided by powers and empires and suspicion and fear and all the ways people might be driven apart, Jesus gathers a flock, who will be one, just like he and the God he calls Father are one. And even that divided world, a world that, as we say, “God so loved,” that world will be made new. A world at peace, a world made one.